Robin Hood (1973)/Trivia
Trivia * As the film was made during Disney's financial slump and therefore allotted a small budget, the artists reused footage from previous animated features. This is most noticeable during the song-and-dance number, "The Phoney King of England"; the characters' movements strongly resemble those from The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In particular, the section where Little John and Lady Kluck dance together mirrors part of the song I Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book with Baloo and King Louie respectively, and Robin Hood and Maid Marion mirror the dancing movements of Thomas O'Malley and Duchess during the song "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" from The Aristocats. The animation of Little John, the bear in Robin Hood, is nearly identical to that of Baloo in The Jungle Book. Both characters were voiced by actor Phil Harris. Maid Marian also dances the same moves as Snow White causing her to wear a petticoat instead of bloomers. * John endlessly sulks over his mother's preference for his brother—a grudge marked by thumb-sucking and the reversion to an infantile state. At one point the behavior culminates in the complaint "Mother always did like Richard best." This is a sly reference to a classic comedy routine by the Smothers Brothers, in which Tom Smothers would bewail the maternal favoritism shown to Dick Smothers. ("Dick" is a common nickname for Richard.) * The church bell on Friar Tuck's church is an actual bell, filmed and added in post-production. * The robe that Prince John wears, and the crown worn by the puppet version of him, are the same robe and crown the king wears in Song of the South. * Friar Tuck was originally envisioned as a pig, but was changed to a badger to avoid offending religious sensitivities. * At the end of the movie, a sound clip of the church bells ringing in Peter Pan was used for the wedding church bells. * Peter Ustinov lent his voice to both the original English-speaking Prince John and the Prince John in the German dubbed version of the movie. Although he also voiced King Richard in the original English version, he doesn't do King Richard's German voice. * The music heard in the opening credits would later become famous on the Internet as The Hampster Dance. * The music played in the background while Lady Kluck fights off Prince John's goons in an American football style manner is better known as On, Wisconsin, the fight song of the University of Wisconsin. *Robin Hood is popular in the furry fandom because it features an anthropomorphic (furry) cast. It is especially popular as Robin Hood and Maid Marian are foxes themselves, a very popular animal in the fandom. * During the beginning of the film, Sir Hiss mesmerizes Prince John with his eyes. This was the same type of ability Kaa the Snake had in Walt Disney's 1967 film, The Jungle Book. * Phil Harris's voice as Little John is almost, if not entirely, identical to the voice he used for the character Baloo in Disney's The Jungle Book (Two Characters were bears and looked alike Except Color). * Barbara Luddy did two roles in the film: the Mother Rabbit and Little Sister (the latter is also known as "Mother" according to Sexton Mouse). * Floyd Huddleston, the lyricist for "Love" (the Oscar-nominated song from the film) was married to Nancy Adams (who sang the song as Maid Marian's singing voice, with whom he had one child) from 1969 until his death in 1989. Category:Trivia facts